Provérbios 23

¹ When thou sittest to eat with a ruler,Eat with sobriety.consider diligently what [is] before thee:

² Bridle your appetite, as if by force and violence.And put a knife to thy throat, if thou [art] a man given to appetite.

³ Be not desirous of his dainties:For often the rich when they bid their inferiors to their tables, it is not for the love they bear them, but for their own secret purposes.for they [are] deceitful food.

⁴ Labour not to be rich: cease from thy ownBestow not the gifts that God has given you, to get worldly riches.wisdom.

⁵ Wilt thou cast thine eyes vpon it, which is nothing? For riches taketh her to her wings, as an eagle, and flyeth into the heauen.

⁶ Eat thou not the bread of [him that hath] anThat is, covetous, as contrary a good eye is taken for liberal as in (Pro_22:9).evil eye, neither desire thou his delicacies:

⁷ For as though he thought it in his heart, so will hee say vnto thee, Eate and drinke: but his heart is not with thee.

⁸ TheHe will not cease till he has done you some harm, and his flattering words will come to no use.morsel [which] thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

⁹ Speake not in the eares of a foole: for hee will despise the wisdome of thy wordes.

¹⁰ Remooue not the ancient boundes, and enter not into the fieldes of the fatherlesse.

¹¹ For he that redeemeth them, is mightie: he will defend their cause against thee.

¹² Apply thine heart to instruction, and thine eares to the wordes of knowledge.

¹³ Withhold not correction from the childe: if thou smite him with the rodde, he shall not die.

¹⁴ Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul fromThat is, from destruction.hell.

¹⁵ My sonne, if thine heart be wise, mine heart shall reioyce, and I also.

¹⁶ And my reynes shall reioyce, when thy lips speake righteous things.

¹⁷ Let not thine heart bee enuious against sinners: but let it bee in the feare of the Lorde continually.

¹⁸ For surely there is an end;The prosperity of the wicked will not continue.and thy expectation shall not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in theIn the observation of God's commandments.way.

²⁰ Keepe not company with drunkards, nor with gluttons.

²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton shall bee poore, and the sleeper shalbe clothed with ragges.

²² Obey thy father that hath begotten thee, and despise not thy mother when she is olde.

²³ BuySpare no cost for truths sake, neither depart from it for any gain.the truth, and sell [it] not; [also] wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

²⁴ The father of the righteous shal greatly reioyce, and hee that begetteth a wise childe, shall haue ioy of him.

²⁵ Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall reioyce.

²⁶ My son, give meGive yourself wholly to wisdom.thy heart, and let thy eyes observe my ways.

²⁷ For a whore is as a deepe ditche, and a strange woman is as a narrowe pitte.

²⁸ She also lieth in wait as [for] a prey,She seduces many and causes them to offend God.and increaseth the transgressors among men.

²⁹ To whome is woe? to whome is sorowe? to whom is strife? to whom is murmuring? to whom are woundes without cause? and to whome is the rednesse of the eyes?

³⁰ They that tarry long at the wine; they that goWho by art make wine stronger and more pleasant.to seek mixed wine.

³¹ Looke not thou vpon the wine, when it is red, and when it sheweth his colour in the cup, or goeth downe pleasantly.

³² In the ende thereof it will bite like a serpent, and hurt like a cockatrise.

³³ ThyThat is, drunkenness will bring you to whoredom.eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.

³⁴ And thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of theIn such great danger will you be.sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.

³⁵ They have stricken me, [shalt thou say, and] I was not sick; they have beaten me, [and] I felt [it] not: when shall I awake? I willThough drunkenness makes them more insensible then beasts, yet they can not refrain.seek it yet again.